Eli Lilly Commits Up to $2.75 Billion to Insilico Medicine for AI-Driven Drug Discovery
Eli Lilly agreed to pay up to $2.75 billion to Insilico Medicine, a Hong Kong biotech using generative AI across its drug-discovery pipeline, with an initial $115 million for exclusive rights to undisclosed pre-clinical drug candidates. Insilico's platform uses PandaOmics for target identification and Chemistry42 for molecule design, reducing the time from target identification to preclinical candidates from 5-6 years to roughly 18 months and screening far fewer compounds than conventional methods. The deal is the third between the companies and follows positive Phase 2a results for Rentosertib, an AI-discovered drug targeting idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. No AI-discovered drug has yet received regulatory approval, and the key open question is whether AI-accelerated compounds will show higher clinical trial success rates than traditionally developed drugs.
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Accelerating discovery of liver disease mechanisms with Co-Scientist
DeepMind's Co-Scientist AI system is being used by researcher Filippo Menolascina to identify new treatment mechanisms for liver disease and explain differential drug response across patients. The application demonstrates Co-Scientist's utility in biomedical hypothesis generation and drug discovery workflows. This represents a concrete scientific use case for AI-assisted research in a clinical domain.
Uncovering repurposed medicines to fight liver fibrosis using Co-Scientist
A Stanford geneticist used Google DeepMind's Co-Scientist AI system to identify potential drug repurposing candidates for chronic liver disease and liver fibrosis. The work represents a real-world application of AI-assisted scientific discovery in a clinical domain. Co-Scientist is DeepMind's AI research assistant designed to accelerate hypothesis generation and experimental planning for scientists.
Opening new paths in aging research: Calico uses DeepMind Co-Scientist
Calico Life Sciences is applying DeepMind's Co-Scientist AI system to aging research, using it to synthesize dispersed scientific findings and generate novel research leads. The collaboration represents a deployment of AI-assisted scientific discovery in a longevity biology context. This is a real-world application case for Co-Scientist, DeepMind's AI system designed to accelerate scientific research workflows.
Anthropic launches AI for Science program offering free API credits to researchers
Anthropic is launching an AI for Science program that provides free API credits to qualified researchers at academic institutions, with a focus on biology, life sciences, drug discovery, and agricultural productivity. Researchers are selected based on scientific contribution, potential impact, and AI's ability to accelerate their work. The initiative aligns with Dario Amodei's 'Machines of Loving Grace' vision and represents a structured philanthropic/access program rather than a technical release.
Finding the molecular switches behind new infectious diseases
DeepMind's Co-Scientist AI tool is being used by researcher Clare Bryant to identify genetic triggers in emerging infectious diseases. The application demonstrates Co-Scientist's utility in accelerating biological discovery, specifically in understanding molecular mechanisms underlying new pathogens. This represents a concrete scientific use case for AI-assisted research in infectious disease biology.
SAIR: Accelerating Pharma R&D with AI-Powered Structural Intelligence
SandboxAQ has published a blog post on Hugging Face describing SAIR (Structural AI for Research), a system applying AI to structural biology data for drug discovery acceleration. The post outlines how structural intelligence—likely leveraging protein structure prediction or molecular modeling—is being applied to pharmaceutical R&D pipelines. This represents an enterprise deployment of AI in the life sciences domain, combining structural biology with machine learning.
Anthropic forms $200 million partnership with the Gates Foundation
Anthropic and the Gates Foundation are committing $200 million over four years in grant funding, Claude usage credits, and technical support across global health, life sciences, education, and economic mobility. Key technical deliverables include healthcare AI benchmarks and evaluation frameworks, disease modeling integrations with the Institute for Disease Modeling, drug/vaccine screening tools for neglected diseases, and agricultural AI datasets. The partnership is led by Anthropic's Beneficial Deployments team and includes public goods such as open datasets and benchmarks. This represents a significant scaling of Anthropic's non-commercial AI deployment strategy.
Insurance Companies Carve Out AI Risk Exceptions; GPT-Rosalind, Claude Design, and Agentic Retail Deployments Highlighted
Major insurers including Berkshire Hathaway units, Travelers Group, and Chubb are excluding or restricting AI-related liability coverage, signaling growing concern over hard-to-model AI-driven claims. OpenAI introduced GPT-Rosalind, a domain-specific LLM fine-tuned for life sciences workflows, while Anthropic launched Claude Design for visual asset generation targeting non-designers. Additional items cover an AI-run San Francisco retail store exposing agentic system limitations, Wall Street banks cutting junior roles via AI deployment, and Anthropic's continued engagement with the Trump administration despite prior Pentagon restrictions.